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Jackson, Miss. – (Nov. 19, 2008) Gene A. Bradford pled guilty in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, November
18, 2008, to federal money laundering charges in connection with a $1 million mortgage loan fraud
scheme, U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton announced today.
Gene A. Bradford worked as a mortgage broker in Hinds County and Madison County doing
business as Guardian Financial Group, LLC. The indictment alleges that from January, 2003
through approximately December 2004, Gene A. Bradford, and others acting at his direction,
prepared false and fictitious documents to insure that lenders would make mortgage loans to
prospective borrowers. If the mortgage loans were successful, Bradford received a fee for his
brokerage services.
The false and fictitious documents, along with the loan application containing false
information, were included in loan application packets submitted to potential lenders by Bradford
and others acting under his direction. The indictment further alleges that in order to obtain funding
for borrowers who were otherwise unqualified to receive mortgage loans, Bradford, and others
acting at his direction, would fabricate various kinds of documents, including but not limited to,
fictitious social security benefit statements, false income and/or employment information, false
verifications of rent, or false verifications of bank funds on deposit. False entries were also included
on HUD-1 Settlement Statements submitted to various lenders with the final loan packets which
reflected that the borrower paid cash at the closing of the loan when no such funds were paid by the
borrower.
This mortgage fraud investigation has been ongoing for over two years and is a joint
investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Postal Inspection Service,
assisted by other participating agencies in the Jackson Financial Crimes Task Force, including the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation-Office of Inspector General,
Housing and Urban Development-Office of Inspector General, Mississippi Secretary of State’s
Office, Mississippi Real Estate Commission and Appraisal Board, Mississippi Department of
Banking and Consumer Finance.
Bradford is scheduled to be sentenced on February 3, 2009, at 3:00 p.m. at the United
States District Courthouse, in Natchez, MS.
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SOURCE: United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of Mississippi
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